Home Improvement
The year is 1990. George H.W. Bush is U.S. President; the Persian Gulf Crisis is in Full Effect; and Timothy Allen Dick (born June 13, 1953 in Denver, Colorado, USA), known professionally as Tim Allen, is starring in a Special for the Showtime Television Network called "Men are Pigs." In the Summer of 1990, former Cosby Show writers Matt Williams, David McFadzean, & Carmen Finestra conceived a situation comedy pilot called "Hammer Time," a knockoff on Bob Vila's "This Old House." Later that Fall, Walt Disney Company chairman Michael Eisner suggested the trio, who produced the pilot for Walt Disney Television under their independent company Wind Dancer Productions, Inc., retool "Hammer Time" as a vehicle for Tim Allen & rechristen the series "Home Improvement." The show cast Tim as Tim Taylor, the host of a local cable TV show in Detroit, Michigan called "Tool Time." Joining Tim in the cast were veteran actress Pat Richardson (born on February 23, 1951 in Bethesda, Maryland, USA) as his wife, Jill; character actor Earl Hindman (born on October 20, 1942 in Bisbee, Arizona, USA; died of lung cancer on December 29, 2003 in Stamford, Connecticut, USA) as Taylor family neighbor Dr. Wilson Wilson, Jr. (a cousin of Brian, Carl & Dennis Wilson and Mike Love from The Beach Boys); Jonathan Thomas (born Jonathan Weiss on September 8, 1981 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA) as middle son Randy; Zachery Bryan (born on October 9, 1981 in Aurora, Colorado, USA) as eldest son Brad; and Taran Smith (born on April 8, 1984 in San Francisco, California, USA) as youngest son Mark, along with Richard Karn (born Richard Wilson on February 17, 1956 in Seattle, Washington, USA) as Al Borland, Tims Tool Time assistant, and Pamela Anderson (born on July 1, 1967 in Ladysmith, Canada) as Binford Tool girl Lisa. "Tool Time" was made by Binford Tools. The pilot for "Home Improvement" was taped at The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California on April 19, 1991. "Home Improvement" made its TV series debut on the ABC Television Network on Tuesday, September 17, 1991 at 8 p.m. and immediately shot to the top of the Nielsen ratings, becoming the years Breakaway hit show. A recurring guest star on "Home Improvement" was real-life Home Improvement expert Bob Vila (born on June 20, 1946 in Miami, Florida, USA), who made his Home Improvement debut in the episode "What About Bob?" Home Improvement finished its rookie season at #4 in the Nielsen ratings, tied with the hit 1980s sitcom "Cheers." In September 1992, ABC decided to move "Home Improvement" to Wednesday nights at 9 p.m. opposite the then-struggling NBC sitcom "Seinfeld." By midseason, "Home Improvement" regularly beat "Seinfeld" in the ratings; in fact, the ratings for "Seinfeld" were SO low, NBC moved "Seinfeld" to Thursday nights at 9 p.m. just to give it a chance, a move that made "Seinfeld" the classic it is today. At the end of its 2nd season, Pamela Anderson decided to leave "Home Improvement" to become a "Baywatch" babe; she was replaced that Fall by Debbe Dunning (born on July 11, 1966 in Burbank, California, USA), a 27-year-old former Southern California beauty queen. After 2 seasons airing on Wednesday nights, ABC moved "Home Improvement" to Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. Another major cast change came during the Summer of 1998, when Jonathan Thomas, by this time a bona-fide teen heartthrob, decided to leave "Home Improvement" to focus on his real-life educational studies. JTT, as his fans referred to him, made his final regular "Home Improvement" episode in August 1998, which aired as the 2nd episode of Season 8 on September 29, 1998 in an episode appropriately titled "Adios." In January 1999, despite the fact that it was still in the Top 10 weekly in the Nielsen ratings, Tim Allen announced at the Peoples Choice Awards that Season 8 of "Home Improvement" would be its last. The series finale was taped on April 9, 1999. On May 25, 1999, ABC gave "Home Improvement" a 2-hour Series Finale sendoff (with several ABC stations airing the Season 3 finale of Spin City at 9:30 p.m. that night despite the Home Improvement finale airing from 8 p.m. ET/PT to 10 p.m. ET/PT) by airing the final original episode as a 2-hour special starting at 8 p.m. ET/PT. Since then, reruns of "Home Improvement" have continued to thrive via local stations across the United States as well as basic cable networks such as TBS, WGN America, & Nickelodeon. "Home Improvement" was produced by Wind Dancer Productions, Inc. in association with Walt Disney Television. Category:Television Shows Produced by Buena Vista Television Category:Television Shows produced by Buena Vista Television